Got back from trip #2 to Disney World.  Two trips in 4 months.  What can I say, my wife can spot a deal and she and Erin are BIG fans of Mickey Mouse.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the parks too, just more so because they love it so much.  I have more fun by association I guess.

It was an interesting experience this time around and since it was our second trip in 4 months, I was a little more familiar with the place and could take a little more time to notice certain things.  For example….Americans are fat.  We are, we’re a fat country.  People from other countries must look at us and roll their eyes.  9 times out of a 10 when I say someone who was obese, I’d slow down to hear their voice to see if they were American.  They were!  And most of the time, hate to say it, they were from the south.

This time around we didn’t take my father in law with us, so Christal and I had to take turns chillin’ with Erin when it came to ride adult rides.  We did this when Erin went down for her afternoon naps.  While my wife waited in line for her ride, I’d sit down somewhere and play “Count the fat people”.  I know what you’re thinking…..That I‘m a jerk for doing this.  I wasn’t doing it in anticipation of looking for overweight people.  I was doing it as my own little science fair project to pass the time as I waited for Christal to get off the Tower of Terror.  It’s amazing.  Honestly, the next time you’re somewhere with a lot of foot traffic, take a look around and count the people who could afford to lose 50 or more pounds.  (Umm Wal-mart on a Saturday afternoon)  Don’t count the marginal people, only count the ones that could be part of the cast on the next season of the Biggest Loser.  Don’t do it in a way that you mean any harm to anyone (or out loud!) just do it as a way to perhaps open your eyes to the growing “unhealthiness” of Americans.  At Disney, Europeans were much thinner….but they dress stupid.  That’s a topic for another time.

Most of my observations were just things I thought up to keep my mind busy while I was waiting.  There was one group of people that angered me to no end.  The scooter people!  I can understand if you have some sort of handicap that prevents you from walking all day at Disney World.  Those people I can totally understand where they are coming from and I gladly offered any assistance needed.  On day 3 of the last trip we took, my father in law required the use of a wheelchair to get around.  He’s a Vietnam vet with a bad knee and back.  He gets a pass.  I’m not talking about wheelchairs, I’m talking about those silly scooters!  I’m not generalizing when I say this, but EVERYONE who had a scooter at Disney World was under 50 years old and overweight!  AMAZING!  I felt terrible.  Many of these people seemed to have given up on being healthy enough to walk and just conceded that they wish to do nothing about it.  They rented/bought a scooter to help enable their “illness”.  Going a step further, they then require others to move out of their way or they needed more space to enjoy the park.  Try watching the fireworks and having people ask you to more so that they can get a better spot for them and their scooter.  Sure, we took up extra space due to the stroller we had, but it was for a 2 year old little girl who takes a 2 hour nap at 12:30 every day.  Even then, I’m one of those people who goes out of his way not to burden anyone else.  I make room, park the stroller out of the way and collapse it whenever I can.

This is classic!  The first night we were there we ate at a Disney World “all you can eat” place.  If you must know (in case you are a Disney fanatic)…it was Boma.  A man and his wife were sitting 2 tables down from where we were at.  They arrived at the same time we did and we saw them at the elevator , hence why they stood out. (we HAD to take the elevator, we had a stroller).  The seemed like a nice couple, both mid 40s, and certainly candidates for the Biggest Loser TV show.   He and his wife got up to FILL their plates at the restaurant 5 TIMES.  If you’re keeping score, I over ate myself, but only got up 2 times.  It was amazing the amount of food these people put down.  To put things in perspective, they were both shorter than me (I’m 5’ 9’’).  I’m only mentioning that so that you are not thinking these people are the height/build of an NFL lineman.  They were 2 people who clearly out-girthed  their reasonable sizes.  (They were fat-not big boned).  Any wouldn’t you know, when we got to the park the next morning and who did we see?  (sing it) “It’s a small world after all”…THEM!  They were both driving the scooters!  They had no problem walking to the buffet 5 times the night before, but for some reason, needed the scooters to carry them around the park the next day.  Amazing.

I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.  I’m not making fun of these people.  I don’t know them and it would be unfair to bash them in my blog.  I’m simply making a point that perhaps we’ve bitten off more than we can chew (literally).  Perhaps we’ve gotten to a point in society that instead of tackling our issues head on, we find new ways to enable ourselves.  Those scooters are there to help people who NEED them.  Not folks who can’t seem to say “NO” to the 3rd, 4th or 5th trip to the buffet.  I’m not taking the side of the skinny people because I lost some weight.  I’m simply saying that I wish we would take steps to better ourselves and not look for ways to make us less than we should be.  It’s ironic that we stop doing the one thing that could help us from becoming obese….walking.  Walking is an amazing thing.  Just ask someone who doesn’t have the ability to do it.

To rent a scooter at Disney World you’d pay $35 per day.  They retail for about $1,800 online    A gym membership is about a third of that.

Boy did I eat.  I went crazy!  I ate like there was no tomorrow!  Mom made 3 different turkeys, a ham, a bunch of sides and people brought PIES galore!  Yes, I got a slice or 2 of my precious pecan pie…it’s like crack for me! lol  Came back home and didn’t gain a pound!  YEAH!!!!!!  Don’t know how I did it, but I managed to keep it off.  I guess, as long as you don’t do it all the time, an occasional over-eating session is cool.  Everything in moderation!

My hometown (Johnson City, Tx) has a huge lights display that they put up after Thanksgiving.  Its pretty impressive and they’ve been doing it since I was a kid.  It’s one of the things the town is proud of and it’s touted as one of the biggest and best Christmas attractions in the state of Texas.  We were lucky enough to be home for the opening weekend and my daughter Erin had a BLAST looking at all the lights.  So much fun!  My brother and his family came down and we all went to the lights display.  Mike (my brother) and I haven’t been seen together in our hometown for a long time.  We ran into a bunch of people from school and at some point I turned to Mike and said “Wow, these people sure got old, but we’ve seemed to age well”.  It was true.  Between my brother’s job (construction) and my new health/workout regime, we managed to go into our 30s looking pretty decent.  Not being egotistical, just surprised to see how the world had put a beat down on some of the people from my past.

Among the encounters was the one that many of us dream about.  There’s probably 100+ songs written about it and millions are made from books and movies about this subject. (cue the music from “The Notebook”) 

I saw her.

Yep her.  The girl that you compared everyone to. 

The “first”…..THAT GIRL!  Had not seen her in a solid 10+ years.  Always wondered how she was….how she looked.  You know what I mean.  She aged pretty well.  Mother of 2-married a guy we went to high school with.  We talked for a few minutes and introduced our spouses and kids to each other.  Ok, I’ll just say it….IT WAS GOOD TO HAVE LOST 35LBS BEFORE I SAW HER.  Not that I have any feelings for this girl in that way anymore.  It’s just felt good to know that she saw this version of me.  The first she’d seen of me in 10+ years and I weigh the same as I did back then.  I’m sure that woman dream of this moment more than men do.  At least that’s the way it goes in movies and books.  (cue the scene where Rachel McAdams gets out of the car and sees Ryan Gosling on the porch). 

Call it vane.  Call it whatever.  I was given that one opportunity to leave a potential lasting impression on “that girl” and I did.  The moment meant more to me that it did her I am sure, but it’s one of the few times in my life where I walked away from one of those life moments feeling confident.  Like most of us, those moments are few and far between.  It’s like having the world greatest comeback line at the perfect time (not 10 minutes later when you kick yourself saying “why didn’t I say that!”).  For the ladies, it’s like wearing that one dress that made that guy’s jaw drop.  I had one of those moments.

I may not see her ever again…..it may be another 10 years.  All I know is that for just a few minutes of time, when it mattered, I felt and looked good. 

For that, and many other things, I am Thankful.

From time to time, people ask what my workout looks like.  I wonder if they think I’m doing a lot of weird stuff or whatever….  It changes every other week, but this is what I did this morning at the Life Center in Simpsonville.  You’ll see a series of reps that build up in weight and then a solo exercise.  I rest 1 minute between the first 4 exercises and then after the 4th, I immediately do the one solo exercise.

1)

Dumbbell Press on a flat bench:  12×45lbs, 10X50lbs, 8×55lbs, 6×60lbs, 12X50lbs. 

Dumbbell fly-12×45lbs

2)

Seated Overhead Press (lifting them over my head in a seated position):  12×25lbs, 10×30lbs, 8×35lbs, 6×40lbs, 12×30lbs

Side raises (flying like a bird)-12×20

3)

Lat Pulldown:  12×90lbs, 10×100lbs, 8×110lbs, 6×120lbs, 12×100lbs

Strait arm pulldown (keeping my arms strait and out in front of me like a zombie)-12×25

4)

Standing tricep cable pressdown (like I am pushing the hammer down on a TNT detonator):  12×80lbs, 10×90lbs, 8×100lbs, 6×110lbs, 12×90lbs

Overhead tricep extension (putting the dumbbell behind my head while I sit)-12×35lbs

5)

Seated Dumbbell curl (curling while sitting):  12×25lbs, 10×30lbs, 8×35lbs, 6×40lbs, 12×25lbs

Standing Dumbbell curl-12×30lbs

6)

Standing lunges (one leg out in front of the other/rotating after each set holding a dumbbell with the weight listed in each hand):  12×30lbs (each leg), 10×35lbs (each leg), 8×40lbs (each leg), 6×45lbs (each leg), 12×35lbs.

Seated leg curl-12×120lbs

Then I do abs.  I rotate a bunch of different exercises and do a total of 300-ish crunches. 

That was my workout for today!  Next week, I get to start working out with what they call a Speedflex machine.  I have not idea what it does, but I was told that it’s supposed to make me puke….so that can’t be too fun?  LOL!